This Week in Entrepreneurship Policy

Members of the House get a jump on the holiday season and will be in recess this week. Meanwhile, their Senate counterparts have a few hearings scheduled. A hearing on the data broker industry follows a yearlong Commerce Committee examination of how data brokers collect, compile, and sell consumer information for marketing purposes. Also, patent trolls get another look this week, courtesy of the Judiciary Committee, which is also exploring the impact on small businesses from a recent decision by the 5th U.S. Court of Appeals to allow companies to require employees to sign contracts forbidding them from initiating class arbitration against the company.